FoodStep - a Sustainable Model for Food Services and Early Childhood Education and Care

Suvi Virtanen

Status: Active, not recruiting

Conditions: Healthy

Treatments: Other: FoodStep - a sustainable health-promoting model for food services and early childhood education and care

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT05249946

THL/1646/6.00.00/2021

Details and patient eligibility

About

Transformation towards a more climate-friendly and healthy sustainable diet will require major changes in the food system: increase in consumption of plant-based foods and only moderate consumption of animal-based foods. In the FoodStep -project, the investigators will develop a sustainable model for food system that reduces the climate impacts of the food system in early childhood education and care. The impact of the changes on children's nutrition, the climate impact of the diet, and the cost of food services will be assessed in a randomised controlled trial. In addition, the effects of the model on the knowledge and attitudes of decision-makers, experts in food service and early childhood education, and families are studied. Based on the project, the model can be applied nationally as part of Finland's climate change mitigation and adaptation strategy. Study aim to a sustainable food system reform through concrete guidelines, communication, and action initiatives.

Enrollment: 116 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 3 to 5 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Are attending a full time daycare

Exclusion criteria

Trial design

Primary purpose: Other

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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116 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention group

Experimental group

Description:

* increasing provision of vegetables and sustainable fish in food offered in early childhood education and care (ECEC) and adjusting intake of meat and milk to reasonable levels to meet recommendations * advancing food education, reducing food waste and assessing the climate and financial impacts of the shift towards a more plant-based diet

Treatment:

Other: FoodStep - a sustainable health-promoting model for food services and early childhood education and care

Control group

No Intervention group

Description:

Food supply and food education continue as usual.